Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the major invasive intracellular pathogens causing most deaths by a single infectious agent. The interaction between host immune cells and this pathogen is the focal point of the disease, Tuberculosis. Host immune cells not only mount the protective action against this pathogen but also serve as the primary niche for growth. Thus, recognition of this pathogen by host immune cells and following signaling cascades are key dictators of the disease state. Immune cells, mainly belonging to myeloid cell lineage, recognize a wide variety of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ligands ranging from carbohydrate and lipids to proteins to nucleic acids by different membrane-bound and soluble pattern recognition receptors. Simultaneous interaction between different host receptors and pathogen ligands leads to immune-inflammatory response as well as contributes to virulence. This review summarizes the contribution of pattern recognition receptors of host immune cells in recognizing Mycobacterium tuberculosis and subsequent initiation of signaling pathways to provide the molecular insight of the specific Mtb ligands interacting with specific PRR, key adaptor molecules of the downstream signaling pathways and the resultant effector functions which will aid in identifying novel drug targets, and developing novel drugs and adjuvants.

Due to the extended lockdown imposed for SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, many people have experienced problematic sleep patterns and associated health issues worldwide. This study was conducted to assess the sleep quality and psychological states of the Bangladeshi population during the COVID-19 pandemic, respondent's behavioral traits as well as psychological or sleep-related problems induced self-medication practice among the respondents, along with the probability of development of drug dependency. The survey was conducted among 2941 respondents from 25th November 2020 to 4th December 2020 where the responses were analyzed by SPSS V22. 10–29.5% experienced a significant degree of sleep problems whereas some experienced severe anxiety and depression. The associations between the behavioral traits and parameters concerning sleep quality, anxiety and depression showed 5% level of significance in all cases. Self-medication practice of sleep aids during this pandemic was reported by 7.14% of the respondents, with a greater percentage belonging to the female or senior age group. Tendency to repeatedly self-medication was observed in 18.86% of this self-medicating populace, and a greater number of male (10.26%) respondents displayed such tendency as opposed to their female (8.6%) equivalents. However, 48.10% of the respondents reported perceptions of improved physical and/or psychological health following self-medication, and this trait was predominant in men (52.14%). Results showed a significant number of Bangladeshi populaces were suffering from psychological issues during this COVID-19 which also influenced a certain number of people towards self-medication practice where signs of drug dependency were observed in a significant number of respondents.

Antibiotic resistance is currently one of the biggest challenges faced by the health professionals worldwide. Bacteria are becoming resistant to commonly used antibiotics and various factors have been identified that are responsible for the resistance. Factors like poor quality of antibiotic products, unethical marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies, irrational use of antibiotics by the physicians and patient incompliance are also common in Bangladesh. To carry out this study, firstly the extent of antibiotic resistance was evaluated by collecting clinical isolates from various diagnostic centers of Dhaka City and conducting antibiotic susceptibility test against commonly used antibiotics. The product quality was evaluated by collecting antibiotic products of different generics from various locations around Bangladesh and then performing drug content assay by HPLC method. Finally, to evaluate patient incompliance, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted on patients who took or had taken antibiotics recently and the collected data was analyzed statistically. The result of the investigation reveals that more than 80% of the collected Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolates were resistant to currently used antibiotics like, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, cefixime, cefuroxime, and moxifloxacin. Similar holds true for the collected Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolates. The product quality in terms of drug content and dissolution was good for most products irrespective of whether the manufacturer had a high market value or not. Patients survey revealed that 82% discontinued antibiotic therapy was due to carelessness (49%), a false sense of cure (36%) and high cost (15%). Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 18(2): 135-143, 2019 (December)

Background and Objectives: Prescription errors can inadvertently compromise the effectiveness and increase the risk of adverse events. This study aims to compare prescription patterns and errors between government and private hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by evaluating the World Health Organization (WHO) prescription indicators, polypharmacy, and omission errors.Methods: Between September 2021 and November 2021, a total of 399 prescriptions were collected from outpatient departments of various government and private hospitals from patients or their attendants. The data were analyzed using the statistical package STATA 15. Chi‐square and Fisher's exact test were employed to determine associations (p < 0.05) among various types of categorical data.Results: Of the collected prescriptions, 48% (n = 192) were from government, while 52% (n = 207) were from private hospitals. The mean number of medicines per prescription was 5.16 for government and 5.87 for private hospitals. Generic names were absent (0%) in both types of hospitals. Antibiotics were present in 34.37% of prescriptions from government and 51.69% from private hospitals. Moreover, injection were found in 17.70% of government and 18.35% of private hospitals' prescriptions. Government hospitals adhered to 67.97% of the essential drug list, whereas private hospitals adhered to 80.42%. Associations between hospital types were observed in missing age, and comorbidities, while no association was found in inscription mistakes. Missing dates and signatures were also associated with hospital types. Polypharmacy was observed in 49.47% of government hospitals and 71.01% of private hospitals. Additionally, polypharmacy in females, pediatrics, geriatrics, and missing comorbidity were also associated with hospital types (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Both government and private hospitals exhibited similar deviations from the WHO prescribing indicators. While government hospitals showed more omission errors, private hospitals exhibited higher rates of polypharmacy. Physicians in both types of hospitals should be vigilant about omission errors, maintain the WHO prescribing indicators, and minimize polypharmacy.

In the current study, the combination of albendazole and mebendazole was analyzed as a potential anthelmintic agent against Lumbricus terrestris (commonly known as earthworms). The in vitro analysis showed the combination of 400 mg albendazole and 300 mg mebendazole had more significant therapeutic activities (mean paralysis time 58 minutes and mean death time 97.33 minutes) than the others. Then the combinations were formulated as tablet using different ratios of excipients where formulation-D performed excellent flow properties (Carr’s index: 14.04±0.27, Hausner’s ratio: 1.19 ± 0.03, Angle of repose: 40.22 ± 0.73). The dosage form prepared from formulation-D had better hardness of 9.40 ± 0.34 kg-N and loss of weight of 0.003 mg compared to other formulations. In terms of disintegration and dissolution studies, formulation-D exhibited excellent properties. The tablet was disintegrated fully within 8.94 ± 0.37 minutes in phosphate buffer (pH 8.3) and dissolution analysis showed R2 of 0.995 for albendazole and 0.991 for mebendazole which were statistically significant. The postformulation anthelmintic study showed that the prepared tablet dosage form was therapeutically effective because it paralyzed and killed all the earthworms within 56 and 85 minutes, respectively. Finally, the tablet was subjected to the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis which confirmed better surface morphology and drug-drug compatibility within the dosage form. The next stage of the work will focus on in vivo analysis for market preparation. Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 21(2): 153-163, 2022 (December)

Rosuvastatin (RVT) is a BCS class II antilipidemic crystalline drug, which exhibits low bioavailability due to its very poor aqueous solubility; therefore, it is challenging to develop a proper formulation of RVT. To enhance solubility and bioavailability of this API, an attempt has been made by implementing solid dispersion technique. Solid dispersion (SD) technique is a solubility enhancing technique where one or more active entities are dispersed in an inert medium (matrix or carrier) at solid state. In this study, different ratios of Kollicoat® IR (KIR) and Kollidon® 90F (KF90) polymers were used with API to prepare various formulations by physical mixing (PM) and SD approaches; here solvent evaporation technique was used whereas methanol was used as solvent which was completely evaporated from the homogenously dispersed system by placing in a water-bath at 60-65°C and then in oven for 30 minutes at 50 °C. Among the formulations, RVT-KF90 SD formulations showed the most promising result in in-vitro study in terms of drug release profile (78.04 – 99.21%) in comparison to pure RVT (63.1%) and physical mixing of RVT with those polymers. USP dissolution apparatus type II was used at 37°C ± 0.5°C with 50 rpm to conduct the in-vitro experiment. The experiment also unraveled that the dissolution of RVT improved with increasing the amounts of polymers. Subsequently, stability of the developed formulations was conducted by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results obtained from FTIR ensured no involvement of any significant drug-excipient interaction. Moreover, the DSC study signified thermal stability at high temperature. Besides, the SEM micrograph illustrated homogenous distribution of RVT in the polymer and transformation of crystal-like RVT into amorphous formulations. Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 20(2): 199-211, 2021 (December)